Hardwood Floors with no subfloor

I am currently in the process of replacing the floor in the kitchen. At one time there was major water and/or fire damage. Instead of replacing the floor, the old owners simply built on top of the old floor. It looks like they did this several times. When you go from the dining room into the kitchen there is a 3-4 inch step: 3 layers of plywood and 3 layers of linoleum. Anyways, its time to replace this. The house is older (1940s) and it doesn't seem to have the same flooring that I've been reading about and talking to people about. Everywhere I read the subfloor is plywood and then hardwood or whatever your floor choice over the plywood. In my house, its the joists and then 1" X 3" wood planks across the joists. This is it. Nothing else. The whole house is like this. We actually sanded this wood and stained it in another room and it looks great (although not very heat efficient. It obviously is strong enough. Its lasted for years.) When I replace the floor down to the joists in the kitchen should I rethink this method of wood floors or can I just copy this format. i couldn't find 1x3 wood planks but i did find 1x4 which I would like to use. If I do use the 1x4 wood, what type of wood is strongest? I'd rather do this method and not use plywood, etc because there will be a step again into the kitchen.

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If you're going all the way down to the joists, I would go back with Advantech. It's a 3/4" engineered subfloor that is tongue and groove, which you want. The thing you will probably run into is where the plank subfloor goes under the walls it will have to be cut, which probably won't leave you anything to nail the Advantech to on two sides of the room. You might have to put in a joist along the walls where you cut the planking. If you elect to leave the planks and hardwood on top of them, make sure you put down a barrier of some sort first, I usually use 30# roofing felt. You still might have places where the hardwood nails miss or don't hang on to the subfloor planks, so you'll have to watch for that as you go!

Good Luck.

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This will be a little tricky.
You are wanting to go right over the floor joist.
If you can live with little distressed look use T&G heart pine.
It may be hard to find oak plank in the lengths you will want if you it will cost you.

hardwood

Can I buy T&G heart pine at homedepot or do I have to go to a specialty lumber store? Thanks for the quick replys. This being my first house, I was soo excited about doing my own work. I don't know much but have learned a lot from this website. Although, I've learned and am pretty upset that Philadelphia does not allow you to do your own plumbing or electrical work. Seems unfair that jobs that would cost me under 100 dollars to do will end up costing me 500-600 dollars because I have to hire a "Master Plumber" to pull the permits and do the work. I understand the need for inspection and permits but why can't they inspect my work! Honestly, I've thought about moving for this one reason. Doing my own work means a lot to me!